Caution, Drivers! Children Present: Traffic, Pollution, and Infant Health

We investigate the effects of automobile congestion on ambient air pollution and local infant mortality rates using data from California spanning 2002 to 2007. Constructing instrumental variables (IV) using the relationship of traffic, weather conditions, and pollutants, we show that particulate mat...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Miller, Douglas L. (Author), Sanders, Nicholas J. (Author), Knittel, Christopher Roland (Contributor)
Other Authors: Sloan School of Management (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MIT Press, 2018-03-02T19:11:39Z.
Subjects:
Online Access:Get fulltext
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100 1 0 |a Miller, Douglas L.  |e author 
100 1 0 |a Sloan School of Management  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Knittel, Christopher Roland  |e contributor 
700 1 0 |a Sanders, Nicholas J.  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Knittel, Christopher Roland  |e author 
245 0 0 |a Caution, Drivers! Children Present: Traffic, Pollution, and Infant Health 
260 |b MIT Press,   |c 2018-03-02T19:11:39Z. 
856 |z Get fulltext  |u http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113913 
520 |a We investigate the effects of automobile congestion on ambient air pollution and local infant mortality rates using data from California spanning 2002 to 2007. Constructing instrumental variables (IV) using the relationship of traffic, weather conditions, and pollutants, we show that particulate matter, even at modern levels, has large marginal effects on weekly infant mortality rates, especially for premature or low birthweight infants. We also find suggestive evidence of large effects for carbon monoxide, though results are imprecise. Finally, we check estimate sensitivity to nonclassical measurement error in local pollution and show that our IV results are robust to such concerns. 
520 |a University of California Energy Institute 
520 |a University of California, Davis. Institute of Transportation Studies 
655 7 |a Article 
773 |t Review of Economics and Statistics